KPIs for Digital Marketing Measurement: Social Media Growth Metrics

The fundamental power of social media is twofold. It both enables you to interact—consistently and directly—with your users, as well as to facilitate virality by feeding the conversion people are having about your brand within their own social networks. This presents a unique advantage over other channels in terms of building loyalty, collecting feedback, and honing your brand based on the relationships you build.

While social can be a useful avenue for direct sales, it’s real value often lies in enhancing awareness, shaping your company’s narrative, and maintaining the interest and engagement of your loyal customers and fans.

While it is important to analyze social performance in terms of outcomes and economic value, primary social KPIs generally fall into the acquisition and engagement stages.

Think of Social KPIs in three different categories:

Content – The type of messaging that’s resonating with users. Look at trends to identify certain themes in your most popular posts. Use this information to guide your content generation.

User Profile/Demographic – The types of users who engage with your posts. Social is a great platform for expanding your audience. Understanding which user demographics are interacting with your content can help identify new targets and inform your marketing strategy.

Interactive – How users use your content. One great feature inherent in social is organic amplification. You post on facebook, your fan then shares that post, exposing it to their network. It’s important to take advantage of organic amplification by creating content that users want to share.

KPIs by Network

Facebook

Facebook is the world’s largest social network and an invaluable platform for both paid and organic marketing. With over 1.3 billion active users, it provides the most significant opportunity of any social network to engage with your existing customers, and attract new ones.

Page Likes – The number of people who “like” your page

Post Likes – The number of people who “like” your paid or organic post

Shares – The number of times your paid or organic post was shared

Comments – The number of comments on your paid or organic post

Page Engagement - The number of actions taken on your page

Post Engagement – The number of actions taken on your paid or organic post

Frequency – The average number of times each unique user saw your paid ad

Reach – The number of unique users who saw your paid or organic post

Clicks to Website – The number of clicks on links to your website from facebook

Twitter

Twitter is similar to facebook, but with a limit of 140 characters per post, it’s designed for much more concise messaging. This can be extremely useful in an age of short attention spans.

Retweets – The number of times your tweet was shared

@Replies – The number of replies sent to you via @[username]

@Mentions – The number of times you’re mentioned via @[username]

Followers – The number of unique users who are following your account

Clicks to Website – The number of clicks on links to your website from Twitter

Linkedin

Although Linkedin has a smaller user base than Twitter and facebook, it’s a network designed only for professions and can be an especially powerful channel for B2B marketing and recruiting new talent.

Unique Company Pageviews – The number of unique users who viewed your company page

Search Keyword Relevance – The relevance and quality of the keywords people used to find your page

Traffic to Website – The number of website visitors referred by Linkedin

Google+

Often thought of as Google’s answer to facebook, Google+ has much of the same functionality, but with a few unique elements, such as the ability to categorize your followers into “circles”. With over 550 million active users, it should not be overlooked. Additionally, Google is big on platform integration, such as curating your company’s +1s and featuring them in your AdWords ads.

Followers – The number of people you have “in your circles”

Post +1s – The number of +1s your post receives

Traffic to Website – The number of website visitors referred by Google+